arXiv · 2504.10721
Geographic Variation in Multigenerational Mobility
Abstract
Using complete-count register data spanning three generations, we document spatial patterns in inter- and multi-generational mobility in Sweden. Across municipalities, grandfather-child correlations in education or earnings tend to be larger than the square of the parent-child correlations, suggesting that the latter understate status transmission in the long run. Yet, conventional parent-child correlations capture regional differences in long-run transmission and therefore remain useful for comparative purposes. We further find that the within-country association between mobility and income inequality (the "Great Gatsby Curve") is at least as strong in the multi- as in the inter-generational case. Interpreting those patterns through the lens of a latent factor model, we find that regional differences in mobility primarily reflect variation in the transmission of latent advantages, rather than in how those advantages translate into observed outcomes.
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Martin Nybom, Jan Stuhler. 2025-04-14. Geographic Variation in Multigenerational Mobility. https://doi.org/10.1177/00491241251341196
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